Biological components

BIOLOGICAL COMPONENTS:

Aloe Vera is a natural product which is dramatically increasing its value in the field of cosmetology and is being used in most of the cosmetic products because of its huge importance and significant biological effects.

Basically, in this article, we are going to emphasize on the properties, mechanism and actions of the aloe Vera plant and we would also discuss its clinical uses.

Aloe Vera has several uses in our daily lives.

According to the research it has been projected that the identification of the active substances like Aloe Vera gel and latex has emphasize on the effective use of the Aloe Vera Plant.

If talk about the chemical structure of Aloe Vera, it keepsdiverging and depends on the factors such as weather conditions, the region of where the plant is, its growing conditions, the age of the plant etc.

If we talk about the clinical usage of the Aloe Vera latex, it sometimes act as antibacterial, analgesic and antivirals. It is also reported that latex contain an acid insoluble resin for about 16-33%, a trifling quantity of essential oil which takes care of the odor of latex and 24.5 % of significant ash content.

Although it has some major biological activities, but the Anthraquinonoid (which is an aromatic organic compound) may also have harmful effects, such as Geno-toxic, mutagenic and tumor promoting.

It primarily consists of 98.5% of water having the pH of 4.4-4.7.

The Polysaccharides consists of vitamins, enzymes and steroids.

The research concludes that the gel rapidly oxidizes when it is exposed to air, it decomposes and loses much of its biological activities in such case.

Therefore the techniques used for processing are sterilization and stabilization. Aloe gel is often commercialized as powdered concentrate. The therapeutically, it is used to prevent progressive dermal ischemia due to burn etc.

Application of fresh gel to normal human cells in vitro promoted cell growth and attachment, whereas a stabilized gel preparation was cytotoxic to both normal and tumor cells. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS AND THEIR PROPERTIES

In 2004, Reynolds provided chemical constituents of Aloe Vera.

According to Reynold, the high content of water the range of which is from 99% to

99.5% is the main feature of aloe Vera. The 0.5–1.0% solid material contains over active compounds, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, simple and complex polysaccharides.

Lectins such as aloctins A and B are some other chemical constituents of Aloe Vera.

TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS:

There are three types of Aloe Vera extract, we are going to discuss below and there is a fourth type of commercial material available as dried latex, which has been traditionally used as the laxative.

ALOE VERA GEL EXTRACT

The best feature of the Aloe Vera is the gel that is produced in the inner leaf pulp of the plant which contains large and thin-walled cells. This extracted gel serves as the water and energy storage component of the plant.

Aloe Vera gel has the polysaccharides which consist of linear chains of molecules of glucose and mannose.

ALOE VERA WHOLE LEAF EXTRACT

The aqueous extract of the whole leaf also called Aloe Vera juice contains both the gel from the inner parenchyma leaf pulp and the latex. The inaccessible compounds are fundamentally phenolic in nature, and many are anthraquinone C -glycosides, anthrones, and free anthraquinones.

ALOE VERA DECOLORIZED WHOLE LEAF EXTRACT

To remove the acrimony and color of the Aloe Vera, a carbon treatment is used which results in a product that has pretty different properties from the whole leaf extract. This extract contains combined Aloin A and Aloin B at < 0.1 ppm.The dried Aloe Vera latex is the solidified liquid originating in the cells of the adjacent leaf parenchyma.